Catalyst
by Orin
Summary: One moment. One moment filled with grief and anger and despair leading to something neither Sonic nor Knuckles are quite sure what to do about. STC KnucklesxSonic ficlet. Slash.


Disclaimer: _Sonic and Knuckles are not mine. STC_ _is (obviously) not mine. But this slash is, and the writing too and I suppose if Sega/STC_ _knew I was slashing these two, they'd well… hopefully endorse it and make their games/comics more slashy?_

STC Knuckles and Sonic have an encounter. It's weird. Like the ficlet. Read on anyway.  
Slash of course. Not even remotely subtext, and with lots of confusion. Done on a mad writing binge last night. Not beta'd. So, apologies for any mistakes.

Yep. Have decided to post more of my stuff here. Ph33r.

**: Catalyst :**

_**by Orin.**_

**He winced at the hands around his wrists, pulled at the unrelenting grip and felt something like a growl against his neck. **

**The grip tightened. Sonic cursed. Then he hissed at the nip of teeth against his throat. **

**He bucked his hips, felt more than heard the vibration of an almost groan against his neck because Knuckles wouldn't even give him the satisfaction of that, the bastard, when that was the whole point. When that was the only reason Sonic had one leg curled over a scarlet hip, foot bent to hook as best it could about a body that Sonic was learning was more angles and bone than softness.**

Didn't matter. Didn't matter- what mattered was the sheer heat radiating from the lean body pressing him to the ground. The hard ground. Hell, everything was hard and Sonic liked it that way. This was all one big freaking surreal mistake he was sure, but he liked it that way too. Everything was moving in a blur, even for him and he didn't know how they got to this because they really, really, didn't like each other and Knuckles had barely ever given him a smile. And suddenly there was an echidna on top of him doing things to his neck that Sonic had to wonder how Knuckles knew to do. 

**They were arguing. Just a minute ago. They always argued. Well, Sonic snarked and Knuckles growled something back, and then one of them would leave. That was it.**

He didn't know what they were, but it wasn't friends. They weren't friends.

Knuckles finally released one of his hands, but Sonic felt it relocate a moment later to his hip, curving around cobalt blue and hiking him up a bit closer to scarlet heat.

He arched. Gritted his teeth because in grabbing a fistful of scarlet headspines, Knuckles had pressed an open mouth to Sonic's neck and was sucking. Hard.

It was not something Sonic would have thought to do. But it made his eyes roll a bit and made him jerk at the rush of heatlighteningfire along his spine a low sound issuing from his lips.

Never even kissed. Neither of them. Because Knuckles was a bloody hermit and Sonic had never gotten around to it and it had always been fine before but now Sonic wondered if they had to, were going to, wasn't this what people did when they did… this kind of thing?

Only he didn't think this kind of thing would usually leave the bruises he was going to have. 

**Tongue. Hot. Slick. Surprisingly dexterous which had Sonic staring up, eyes on headspines that were out of focus and a stone roof that was perfectly in focus when Sonic wanted it to be the other way around. Licking.**

Soothing. 

Knuckles was making a sound. A sound Sonic had never heard anyone make and he wasn't sure what it was but it almost sounded like a purr. Almost.

But it was too deep to be a purr and when Sonic finally realised that it was a very soft growl, that he had somewhere in all of this, wrapped his other leg around Knuckles' hips and half of him was mostly off the floor and the implications of this exact position hit him he grabbed scarlet headspines hard. And yanked.

On hindsight, it was a good thing Knuckles had not been biting him at that moment because if he had, Sonic would have had a small but probably nasty hole, in his neck. 

**There had been a confession. Of sorts. It had not gone how Sonic had wanted it to. Knuckles' reaction had not been how he had thought it would be. Though how he could ever have guessed who anyone would take the news that they had lived in the past, eight-thousand-years ago and that their race were probably annihilated, that they had been waiting all their lives for nothing… he could not say.**

Fury. Fury warring with despair in equal portions. Knuckles lunged at him. Sonic ducked. Had felt a fist lash his side and had kicked out in retaliation.

Then they both had gone down. And there had been more fighting but it wasn't real fighting because Sonic was defending himself, and getting a few angry hits in while he was at it and that was not fighting. It was all growls and bites and clawing. Not fighting at all.

Knuckles…

**It had all stopped with a shudder. Somehow Knuckles had ended up on top and was pinning him down and Sonic was snarling- something- something about how it didn't matter anyway – when Knuckles had shuddered, face against Sonic's throat and, with that, had stilled.**

**For a few seconds, Sonic had wondered if Knuckles was crying.**

But Knuckles didn't cry.

**There had only been enough time for that thought to surface before the echidna's head had turned, turned into Sonic's neck and there was _warmth_ and Sonic had not known what that was, so he had jerked away, which had made Knuckles growl, which had made Sonic try to buck him off and then…**

And then…

Then was now and now they were here, Sonic wrenching Knuckles' head back, staring up at the Guardian who was panting lightly, looking slightly out of it, eyes dark, mouth open, dragging each sharp breath in. Almost matching Sonic's own.

**Violet.**

Sonic had never realised before. But there it was. Violet eyes. Knuckles had them. Usually they looked black, Sonic had always thought they were black but right now, so close, staring down at him, realisation slowly dawning on that not-so-tight expression, Sonic realised that Knuckles had violet eyes.

He did not know why it made him uncomfortable.

It just did. 

**It did, like this pregnant pause, both staring in it, realising in it. It was easier in the movement, in the tussle and drag, the growl and jerking of… of… whatwasit? **

_**Passionlustheatviolenceangergrief-**_

**Sonic didn't know. **

**There had been a thrill. He could recognise that much; he had the same feeling- but not quite- when he went up against a strong badnik, the 'not knowing if you were going to get out of this alive but willing to give it all you had anyway' sort of feeling.**

That was what he had felt.

**Not thinking. That was what he had felt.**

**Knuckles' mouth to his throat and his legs wrapped around the echidna's waist-**

**Just, not thinking.**

**Knuckles let him go.**

Not quickly. Not abruptly, but slowly, pausing and with something on his face Sonic could not place. But it was tight again; it was closed again and it was very careful. Like the hands that set him down, gently. Very gently. Easing off of him, and because Sonic was still staring up, and unmoving, Knuckles had to use one hand to pry cobalt legs from his hips.

Cautious. Slow. Unwinding one, and curling it down, knee bent, foot flat to the granite beneath them. And then moving to the other. Doing the same with that. Sonic was levering himself to his elbows, and the movements drew Knuckles' eyes to him again. To his face.

He stared. Sonic stared back. Both were still panting softly, and bar it, silence was the only sound Sonic could hear around their combined breathing. 

**In that silence between them, he could almost hear the world spin, the island move. Screams and fighting. Whispers and wind songs of a lost race. **

**But not quite. There was nothing else. Just those violet eyes, Knuckles' careful withdrawal, Sonic's numb stupefaction because, what had just happened? He did not know. **

**  
This was Knuckles. Knuckles and him. This was Knuckles and him.**

**  
He did not have a single solitary clue what had just happened.**

**Knuckles paused mid movement. His eyes darted to Sonic's again, he had been looking away, looking pointedly at the ground, at the tree line beyond Sonic, at everything but Sonic but now he was looking at Sonic again and-**

"**Nothing," he said, after a moment of deliberation. "Nothing at all."**

Sonic only realised then that he had asked his last question aloud. 

**Nothing at all.**

This was nothing?

He pulled himself back, sitting up, watching Knuckles withdraw further and gather his own legs beneath him into a low crouch. But he did not rise. His face looked pale and his lips were a tight unforgiving line but he did not move away.

"…are you…." Pause. Was that a flicker of disgust? Right there, after the word? 

**Sonic watched Knuckles' jaw harden and those eyes glanced away, up, then back to him. **

" **Did I … hurt you?"**

**Hurt him? Startled and unthinking Sonic shook his head in a swift negation. No. Not hurt. He was tingling, and that was a first. All over. Even the slow movement of the wind through the opening of the cavern made him want to shiver.**

**Knuckles scrutinised him for a moment and Sonic had the brief thought the echidna may have believed he was lying. Like he would. For what? Knuckles' pride? To save face?**

He was not hurt. What he was, was-

What it was, was-

**Confusion. Coming down from a pure adrenaline rush he had not felt since… Chaos. Still caught in movement. Push pull frenzy of a hot mouth against his neck and something bearing over him all grief and passion and anger and the friction that kept them from ever, ever becoming friends but made this, this … encounter brief and insane and unthinkable and impossible because this was Knuckles but it was really, something-**

**-incredible. **

**Not good. Not bad. Just incredible.**

**And it was still Knuckles.**

**Grumpy, reserved, sarcastic, cold, gullible Knuckles, refusing to see Sonic for what he was, a hero who didn't waste his time on earth and stone and old dead things, on a past long gone and mostly forgotten, on a people who were probably just the dust of eons past-**

**Someone alone. **

**Who blamed Sonic for everything in general-**

**  
Who would always be alone. Because they were gone and Sonic knew it and now, Knuckles knew it too.Sonic felt the sudden urge to get up and run bearing down on him, far more oppressive than Knuckles had been, and he pulled himself to his feet, startled to find his legs notquite steady.**

**Knuckles rose as well, slower, still careful and his eyes remained on Sonic until Sonic looked away.**

In a moment. He would go in a moment. This was too surreal. Here and now, feeling Knuckles stare at him and not knowing what to do.

Blood and fists, grief and bone. That was real. A few moments ago, before the pause, that had been real. More real than this. More real than… Whatever this was, after.

"What was that?" he asked again. This time it was a conscious question, this time he wanted to know.

But the answer was the same. Even though Knuckles took a slow breath, ducked his head and brushed his grazed knees off, slowly, even though Sonic read the tension in his hands, his shoulders, all he said was-

"Nothing. It was nothing."

**Nothing at all. **

**_A mistake._**

A mistake with pain and violet eyes and soft fur but hard, hard bones underneath who had no one who would always have no one and who now could not even hope to have someone and why had Sonic told him again?

He couldn't remember.

Just that Knuckles had violet eyes. That he was watching Sonic with them. And Sonic did not know what to do with that.

So he shrugged. He stretched his hands up and folded them behind his head, saw those violet eyes follow the movement and feigned nonchalance.

"**Whatever," he said. **

**His mouth was dry. His heart was still pounding.**

**Knuckles said nothing at all. **

**And when Sonic turned on his heel to leave, he could feel those eyes on him every step of the way.**

**Knuckles was right. It was nothing. Nothing at all. **

**:FIN:**

I don't know what this is, and I could not figure out how to end it. So it ended like that. A one shot. Don't expect a sequel.

Little explanation-

Been reading work by a wonderful writer lately, here on F. by the name of Awdures, who writes STC Sonic and Knuckles as I've always seen them and it got me fangirling.

It also reminded me, STC Sonic and Knuckles were the reasons that I began writing. Writing Sonic fics, but also, just writing. The tension between them was the first attempt as fanfic I ever took a stab at. I've never written them 'together'. Whereas I've attempted it with every other version of them there is.

I haven't with them. Because STC's Sonic and Knuckles are so often antagonistic and unmovable, even though I knew it would/could be lovely to write, getting what I sort of saw in my head, down as a moment or two in writing… eh…. Hella hard s'all I'll say.

I'd say, of all the versions of Sonic and Knuckles out there, these two are probably the most passionate, but also, (unfortunately) probably the most incompatible. ;;;

Still, I wanted to attempt this ficlet anyway.

Enough babble. Hope someone liked this thing regardless.


End file.
